BROWN, Sir William, a noted physician and multifarious writer, was settled originally at Lynn in Norfolk, where he published a translation of Dr Gregory's Elements of Catoptrics and Dioptrics; to which he added, 1. A method for finding the Foci of all Specula, as well as Lenses universally, as also magnifying or lessening a given object by a given Speculum or Lens, in any assigned Proportion; 2. A Solution of those Problems which Dr Gregory has left undemonstrated; 3. A particular Account of Microscopes and Telescopes, from Mr Huygens, with the discoveries made in Catoptrics and Dioptrics. Having acquired a competence by his profession, he removed to Queen's Square, Ormond Street, London, where he resided till his death. By his lady, who died in 1763, he had one daughter, grandmother to Sir Martin Browne Folkes, baronet. A great number of lively essays, both in prose and verse, the production of his pen, were printed and circulated among his friends. The active part taken by Sir William Brown in the contest with the licentiates, 1768, occasioned his being introduced by Mr Foote in his Devil upon Two Sticks. Upon Foote's exact representation of him, with his identical wig and coat, tall figure, and glass stiffly applied to his eye, he sent him a card complimenting him on having so happily represented him; but as he had forgotten his muf, he had sent him his own. This good-natured method of resenting disarmed Foote. He used to frequent the annual ball at the ladies' boarding-school, Queen Square, merely as a neighbour, a good-natured man, and fond of the company of sprightly young folks. A dignitary of the church being there one day to see his daughter dance, and finding this upright figure stationed there, told him he believed he was Hermippus redivivus, who lived sublitis puellarum. When he lived at Lynn, a pamphlet was written against him, which he nailed up against his house door. At the age of eighty, on St Luke's day
1771, he came to Batson's coffee-house in his laced coat and band, and fringed white gloves, to show himself to Mr Crosby, then lord mayor. A gentleman present observing that he looked very well, he replied, "he had neither wife nor debts." He died in 1774, at the age of eighty-two; and by his will he left two prize medals to be annually contended for by the Cambridge poets.